Voxengo Boogex Guitar Amp (alpha)

[jens]

I was very excited to try this plugin however the distortion sound at mhigher level settings like nasty digital waveshaping(=almost useless)

The cpu-consumption is at least as high as Cortex which is free&lovely (apart from using too much cpu) - o.k. I know you said you will reduce it but I can just judge what is there and currently I wouldn't even use it if it was freeware - may sound harsh but is my honest opinion and I like giving compliments far more than bashing other's work...

[pough]

The umpulses being used here are free? From NoiseVault etc?

But being used in a commercial plug?

How...ethical.

Right. Let's assume that there is no legal way to use these in a commercial product. Let's also assume that there was no deal between Beamsonic and Voxengo. Then let's assume that the commercial product will end up shipping with the Beamsonic impulses. So all it takes is three assumptions to help us climb up onto that high horse and point out fingers downwards, eh?

The work of a champion, rabbit.

[championrabbit]

The umpulses being used here are free? From NoiseVault etc?

But being used in a commercial plug?

How...ethical.

Right. Let's assume that there is no legal way to use these in a commercial product. Let's also assume that there was no deal between Beamsonic and Voxengo. Then let's assume that the commercial product will end up shipping with the Beamsonic impulses. So all it takes is three assumptions to help us climb up onto that high horse and point out fingers downwards, eh?

The work of a champion, rabbit.

Are you suggesting that Mr Voxengo is designing a product based on impulses that are not going to be used?

[Scr1pt3r]

Probably a silly question but still is a question...
I dont record guitars nor mics but I do intend to do so in the near future.
Will a software amp plugin will allow me to connect my guitar/mic DIRECTLY into the sound card without the need to go through external preamp/mixer ?

[lawapa]

Probably a silly question but still is a question...
I dont record guitars nor mics but I do intend to do so in the near future.
Will a software amp plugin will allow me to connect my guitar/mic DIRECTLY into the sound card without the need to go through external preamp/mixer ?

No, you stll need a pre to get your guitar into the computer. The mic input is too hot and the line input not hot enough. I use a Blue Tube mic pre that has instrument gain stage. Works well enough to record clean guitar with a tube for warmth.

[Aleksey Vaneev]

Teksonik, you should have used Uninstall - not just removing DLL.

Funkybot, thanks for your comments.

kahm, currently no Mac version is planned.

championrabbit, it's not being sold right now - I do not break any rights. Of course the final version won't contain any questionable impulses nor it will contain any 'big' names in the impulse list. It will be a pretty pathetic plug-in for those who make guitar music - those who do not try to make attitudes.

It's strange some people look for tube amp even if I have not advertised it is a tube amp or something. It's just a guitar amp.

Scr1pt3r, indeed, almost any plug-in guitar amp allows you to use your guitar connected via soundcard - no need for anything else here.

[Scr1pt3r]

No, you stll need a pre to get your guitar into the computer. The mic input is too hot and the line input not hot enough. I use a Blue Tube mic pre that has instrument gain stage. Works well enough to record clean guitar with a tube for warmth.

Scr1pt3r, indeed, almost any plug-in guitar amp allows you to use your guitar connected via soundcard - no need for anything else here.

Those are 2 different opinions , So what is the answer ?

Do I need an external hardware preamp/mixer before connecting the guitar or mic to the soundcard or do I not ?

[IIRs]

Do I need an external hardware preamp/mixer before connecting the guitar or mic to the soundcard or do I not ?

You need to make sure your guitar is plugged into a high impedance input.

This means using a DI box, a channel strip, or a dedicated transformer (I got one from maplins for less than a tenner) if your soundcard does not have suitable ones built in. Most soundcard line inputs are low impedance: plugging a guitar straight into these will work, but will sound like shit!

Hi impedance inputs are usually labelled 'instrument' or 'Hi-Z'.. once you have the impedance matched properly the plug-in should be able to take care the rest, so any extras such as valve drive or compression that you get with some units are simply a matter of taste.

[IIRs]

of course, my above answer assumes your guitar has conventional passive pickups.. if it uses active pickups (does it take 9V batteries?) then you might get away with plugging into a standard line in..

[k-bird]

I was trying this last night myself. I got some fairly feral sounds out of it; i don't know guitar amps that well but i had this thing going absolutely mental with my Fender last night. The Epiphone LP it didn't like so much, however, but that's probably more to do with the fact that my Epi is permanently stuck in 'muddy' mode due to bad wiring.

I do like how you can shape the sound as you go with EQ, that's really handy. Could we have a noisegate control on a later version? That would also be really handy.

[IIRs]

Hi Aleksey

I just had a quick play through this, (using my cheap strat instead of my expensive Les Paul) but I'm actually extremely impressed! As the owner of a very nice Mesa valve amp, the thing that has always struck me as most 'wrong' about amp sims is that they feel somehow lifeless and flat to play through.. I always felt that the resulting sound was disconnected from my fingers in a way that it isn't through my real rig. (even when I stand some distance from my cab, which rules out latency as a reason!)

This plug of yours is the first one that has ever made a guitar feel alive in anything like the way my rig does.. I'm not sure how close it gets yet (I need to play my main guitar through it at daytime volumes) but there is a problem: the plug adds 4.3ms of latency. This is a big deal to a guitarist! I would personally be happy to accept higher cpu consumption instead.. at least make it an option?

Thanks!

[ResonantOrder]

No, you stll need a pre to get your guitar into the computer. The mic input is too hot and the line input not hot enough. I use a Blue Tube mic pre that has instrument gain stage. Works well enough to record clean guitar with a tube for warmth.

Scr1pt3r, indeed, almost any plug-in guitar amp allows you to use your guitar connected via soundcard - no need for anything else here.

Those are 2 different opinions , So what is the answer ?

Do I need an external hardware preamp/mixer before connecting the guitar or mic to the soundcard or do I not ?

It depends on what soundcard your using and what pick ups you have in your guitar. There is no hard and fast rule that you have to have a pre-amp.

I have a mia midi that switches between high and low impedence.

[AKJ]

Hi Aleksey,

generally I am a fan of your plugins but this one is a bit disappointing. compared to Trash (which is my favourite) it's imo very limited in sound-shaping options and also sound-wise (maybe as an effect of the latter) it's far away from Trash.

best, AKJ

[Scr1pt3r]

No, you stll need a pre to get your guitar into the computer. The mic input is too hot and the line input not hot enough. I use a Blue Tube mic pre that has instrument gain stage. Works well enough to record clean guitar with a tube for warmth.

Scr1pt3r, indeed, almost any plug-in guitar amp allows you to use your guitar connected via soundcard - no need for anything else here.

Those are 2 different opinions , So what is the answer ?

Do I need an external hardware preamp/mixer before connecting the guitar or mic to the soundcard or do I not ?

It depends on what soundcard your using and what pick ups you have in your guitar. There is no hard and fast rule that you have to have a pre-amp.

I have a mia midi that switches between high and low impedence.

My sound card is Creamware Pulsar II

[Sascha Franck]

As IIRs said, you basically need two things:
- A device to accept hi-z (high impedance) input signals fine. In case you don't have any, a DI box might do.
- Some sort of preamp bringing signals up to line level. A mixer channel strip might do.

Most plain mixer channels aren't up to the task of accepting hi-z signals straight. You might be able to get some sort of use out of them, but usually the interaction between guitar/bass and amp will be quite different from, say, using the input of a guitar/bass amp. Becomes most noticeably when you turn down the volume on your axe slightly. The audible results on non-hi-Z inputs usually are way more drastic than what you're used to from a dedicated amp. And of course that also goes for volume differences in picking.

A very good budget hi-z solution, bringing input signals (both Mic and instrument) to line level seems to be M-Audios Audio Buddy.